UIDAI temporarily bars Airtel's Aadhaar-based SIM verification

UIDAI suspended e-KYC licence key of Bharti Airtel Ltd and Airtel Payment Bank Ltd with immediate effect.

Aadhaar-based SIM verification of mobile customers using eKYC process as well as e-KYC of payments bank clients by Bharti Airtel and Airtel Payments Bank has been temporarily barred by the UIDAI, said a PTI report.

Amid allegation that Bharti Airtel was using the Aadhaar-eKYC based SIM verification process to open payments bank accounts of its subscribers without their 'informed consent', the UIDAI suspended e-KYC licence key of Bharti Airtel Ltd and Airtel Payment Bank Ltd with immediate effect.

This essentially means Airtel would not be able to, in the interim, carry out 'electronic-verification' or link mobile SIMs of its customers with their 12-digit biometric national ID Aadhaar though the efficient and paperless eKYC (or electronic Know Your Customer) process of UIDAI, reported PTI.

Also, Airtel Payments Bank will not be able to open a new account with Aadhaar e-KYC. However, accounts can be opened through alternate methods, if available.

More than 23 lakh customers have reportedly received as many as Rs 47 crore in their Airtel bank accounts, which they did not know had been opened. Government LPG subsidy was also getting transferred to these accounts, without their consent.

OneIndia News with PTI inputs